Yesterday's edition of the Houston Chronicle's Game Hack blog ponders whether racism is becoming a norm in video game design.

Blogger Willie Jefferson expresses concern over 2009 releases Resident Evil 5 and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (pic at left) as well as the in-development Left 4 Dead 2. RE5, of course, has already been the subject of much debate over its depiction of African villagers as zombies. Jefferson writes:

I am disturbed by the growing trend of racist undertones that are cropping up in video games.

One of the games that comes to mind is "Left 4 Dead 2." ...Set in New Orleans, players will have to fight their way through hordes of zombies - with several of them who appear to be African-Americans. When I saw the first trailer for the game, all I could think about was Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath...

The game that really inspired this blog entry was Ubisoft's "Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood." The game starts out with players assuming the role of Ray, a Confederate officer... the Confederacy, as far as I am concerned, wanted to keep their cheap slave labor and the like. I can not stand the Confederate flag... To me, the flag represents hate -- and offends me and many others to no end. [It] made me wonder how much research Ubisoft did for this game...

As a minority, had the South won, I wouldn't be in this position I am today...

The current streak of controversy over racism in video games is really starting to annoy me.It amazes me that every time a black guy get's killed people cry fowl, but it's somehow OK when it's white guys being shot. Equality means that you don't treat people differently based on some differential aspect.RE5 had lot's of black guys being infected, sure, no one is denying that, but seen in the context of the other games in the series, it's no different from the Spanish people in RE4 or the citizens of Raccoon City in the previous games. It's a result of the location rather than a racist agenda by the developers.The same goes for Left 4 Dead 2. When you set a zombie game in a location such as New Orleans, where a majority of the inhabitants are African-American, then of course a lot of the zombies will be of African-American origin as a result.This is not being racist, but being true to the setting of the games. To be honest, I would have been more offended had the majority of the infected in RE5 been white, not because of there racial origin, but because it would have been a clear indication that the developers where trying to a peace people who are too easily offended.

And as for the issue about the protagonists of Call of Juarez being Confederates, I think it's important that we don't paint a picture of all confederates as evil, but rather as people following misguided ideals. And this goes for other "villans" with strong political motivations as well.

It's clear by now that gamers are flat out refusing to see that people are not claiming that the enemy characters being black is racist. They are attempting to change the discussion into those terms, but the issue has been the design of the characters since the beginning. The infected in grass skirts, chucking spears? Not one person has even remotely acknowledged that they exist...simply put, they refute the argument that it's just because they are black that people are upset. In terms of RE5, of course.

I seriously doubt the developers of RE5 had any aspirations of racisism at all. It's a locale people. The indigenous poeple of Haiti (where RE% is set) are African American. So in this FANTASY world where people become ZOMBIE-LIKE the people of that locale turn in to ZOMBIES. Sounds simple enough.

Look I hate racisism in any form... but this is blatent PROJECTION of racisism where none was originally intended.

I believe it is overly POLITICALLY CORRECT people like some in this forum and the author of this Houston Chronicle article who are turning this issue in to racisism.

(Side Note: Being a Houstonian myself... I apologize for this idiot author from my city. We are not all idiots down here in Houston.)

"So in this FANTASY world where people become ZOMBIE-LIKE the people of that locale turn in to ZOMBIES. Sounds simple enough."

Would have been simple enough were it not for the tribal garb and grass skirts to match the spear chucking...did you even play RE5? The issue is not that the players are black, or that the enemies are black, it's that the infected are walking around in the most offensive of African stereotypes, the secondary character has an outfit that literally has her walking around in an animal bikini with a bone necklace, and the story is an allegory for the European domination of Africa. It's the overly simplistic amongst gamers that devolved it into the most simple terms, ie Black zombies = racist. That is the only way that the people en masse can argue that the game does not draw on racially insensitive stereotypes and imagery.

Come to think of it, how did Eulogy Jones (a black man) running a slave camp in Paradise Falls in Fallout 3 manage to fly under the radar? I guess since it was a black man enslaving white people it was okay. The message from the black community being slavery is okay as long as it isn't black people who are the slaves. I have no doubt if Paradise Falls was run by a white guy who had black slaves they would have been outraged.

For RE5, it was more racist to change the game after-the-fact and include white people in the enemy roster, because it does so in with the idea of racism in mind. If they were left as all black, then it would be a geographically and culturalistically correct game with no burden of thought about racism being viable.

No, but it is becoming the norm in mainstream blogging. I can understand why someone would be offended by it, but what I can't understand is why they wouldn't silently put it away and stop playing it, or maybe even go back and get a refund, if the author of that article even bought said games in the first place and isn't simply reacting to what he's read.

Ugh. I just finished up a gory forum battle with a black guy who kept perceiving racism in everything. There's a sociological mental disorder festering in America and I'm not talking about Republicanism. It seems like all the people who demanded others get past racism are stuck on it themselves. What absolute hypocrites.

If black people can't handle being the villians then what it really displays is the lack of their own willingness to intergrate and be apart of society as 'one' rather than a 'color'.

People really are just making something out of nothing. Oh look there are black people in the game, RACIST! Oh look there are no black people in the game, RACIST!

Killing or playing only as white people is what's racist. Blacks complain about how they're being segregated yet who are the ones that invented black colleges, black this and black that? The blacks. If they don't want to be segregated then why are they bringing it upon themselves? Make an effort and get rid of these 'black only' organizations. Stop referring to caucasians as 'whites' if you don't want to be referred to as 'black'. It's rather simple.

I mean seriously, this is 2009, nobody gives a flying fuck what the color of your skin is. You're being delusional and stirring shit for the sake of it.

Take two seconds and educate yourself. Black colleges came about because blacks were not allowed into white colleges (like every school in the country basically). This is the same thing that the Irish did (ever hear of Notre Dame), that the Catholics did, and it's essentially the first step towards achieving some kind of equal status in society. Remember that America treated every new group of immigrants as a distinct race for a while, and they were all pretty much discriminated against. Just so happened that blacks were (and still are, which is something people seem to ignore) the bottom rung of that ladder in terms of treatment.

Also, if you would take a step off of your high horse for a second, I'd like you realize that it might not be the viewpoint of every black that they are being segregated. Also consider this: if you are white, you oftentimes can, if you so choose, to lead a life where you do not interact with a single minority. That's becoming less and less possible, but it still is possible. Essentially, there are hundreds of thousands of "whites" that go their entire lives without interacting with a single person of color...kind of what you're impugning blacks for here. You could probably do better than unleashing your rage at "wrongs" you feel that blacks have done that you disagree with. That's something that I've seen at every juncture when it comes to race and racial discussion. There's this huge undercurrent of white rage that comes along with finding out that in most cases, there are a ton of advantages that they can be assured of without even knowing. There's a guilt trip involved in finding out that just being themselves has entitled them to something, and even more upsetting, to find out that it creates resentment among those who don't have the advantage at all. For a white male to preach about equality in the manner that you have in your post is about as close as the pot calling the kettle black as we can get.

And no one cares about the color of one's skin...until it starts to erode some of the perks that you didn't know you had.

I have no earthly idea why.---I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.

---I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.

"The game starts out with players assuming the role of Ray, a Confederate officer... the Confederacy, as far as I am concerned, wanted to keep their cheap slave labor and the like. I can not stand the Confederate flag... To me, the flag represents hate -- and offends me and many others to no end. [It] made me wonder how much research Ubisoft did for this game..."

So because they gave confederate soliders in the civil war the confederate flag they didn't do enough research.

The stupid, it burns.

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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

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Debates are like merry go rounds.
Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

Ok, since I think the fact that this guy is stupid and doesn't know what racism is has been covered enough I want to open up another topic for discussion.

with several of them who appear to be African-Americans

Does anybody else think this is one of the more stupid terms to appear? Motherfucker, they are not 'African-American', they are black alright? I'm betting a miniscule amount of black people in north america have ever been to Africa, it's just stupid. Am I supposed to demand that people call me European-American? Also, how moronic is it to use the names of continents to describe someone's skin color? Guess what, not everybody in Africa is black, and not everybody in Europe is white!

To me, an African-American is someone who has citizenship in both Africa and the USA. And that's all it should ever mean.

As previously noted by another poster, the American Civil war was more about the possible succession of the south than it was about slavery. And it's inane to think that every young lad that went off to war was a land and slave owner. I'd be pretty confident that some people north of the line would have owned slaves just as surely as some people south of it would abhor slavery...

Which is all besides the point, the Civil war occurred and setting a game in it (as a historical event) is not racist unless you deliberately looking for racism in everything you see.

Ganondorf is black? He always looked kinda olive green to me; like an ork.

But the only actually black character I can think of is Coach Louis from Punch Out. Typical casting black people as athletically inclined. RACISM!! Where are the black protagonists in the couch-ridden cheetos and diabetes sims?

To quote Jim Carrey's portrayal of the Grinch, "It's because I'm GREEN, isn't it?!"---I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.

---I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.

The "journalist" that wrote this article is racist against everybody who isn't black apparently. He sees no problem killing countless Japanese in CODWAW, or Germans in Medal of Honor, and Middle-Eastern Muslims in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. I'm pretty sure that if it was in an African-Muslim nation he would bitch about it and yet he wants developers to give gamers the option to choose their side?! You and others like you would condemn a game that give people a choice to gas Jews or save them.

He calls Left 4 Dead 2 racist because there are black zombies in the game. Well, where are the feminist groups complaining that there are female zombies? Oh yeah, most people aren't as stupid as this "journalist." Not to mention that 67% of New Orleans is made up of black citizens. They are not a minority there.

He calls Call of Juarez racist. Is a film racist when it realistically portrays what happened during the Civil War? Does this "journalist" think that Danny Glover really beat Whoopi Goldberg when he watched the Color Purple? Does he think that Edward Norton really was a skin head? They portrayed people who were terrible to the black men, doesn't that make them racist in this man's eyes? I mean, what fictional world does this "journalist" live in?

What hasn't been said about Resident Evil 5? You go to Africa and guess what!? There are Africans that you must kill in order to survive. Remember, just because you are a minority here, you are not a minority elsewhere.

Oh and forgetting and avoiding your history means that you refuse to learn from your mistakes and that is a dangerous way of thinking. If you try to forget the past, you are doomed to repeat it.

One more thing, play the game before you condemn it. It sounds like you didn't get far in Call of Juarez due to your own ignorance. If you did, then you would know that the character leaves the Confederacy early on in the game and you kill the people that are sent after you for leaving.

Integrity is something that is supposed to be a cabiot of Journalism, apparently The Houston Chronicle disagrees.

I watched a movie the other day, set in the Bronx, it was about Gangs.

It was terrible, all but two members of this gang were black!

Of course, this had nothing to do with the fact that 'minorities' statistically get the short end of the stick when it comes to finding employment, and everything to do with the fact the program was racist...

Whoever wrote this has really had to reach to find racism, and that annoys me, because, as some people have pointed out, molehill mountaineers such as this distract from real problems that crop up from time to time with race-presentation. We all have to look out for stereotypes, but this is more like treating someone as though simply 'being non-white' in a computer game is somehow racist.

Edit: To put it bluntly, if you have to ask yourself 'Is this racist?', then the chances are extremely high that it isn't.

I like that. I think I'll steal it. ---I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.

---I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.

Guys, guys. Don't you all realize? These days, only white people can be racist. Otherwise, we'd have to admit that people like Sotomayor, Jackson, Sharpton, the jackass that wrote this article, and many, many comedians are terrible racists.

Seriously though. Why is it okay for a black comedian to craft an entire set about white jokes (complete with racism and stereotypes), but when Michael Richards snaps and shouts a racist slur a few times, it's the worst thing anyone could do? I'm not saying what he did was right, but what the hell guys?

Personally, I think we need to remember MLK a bit more, and what he stood for; he didn't stand for reparations, he didn't stand for affirmative action, he stood for EQUALITY. In all ways.

EDIT***Oh, and one more thing. Shut the fuck up about the confederate flag. If you don't like it, then don't fly it outside your house. Don't put a confederate flag bumper sticker on your car. But don't bitch when others do. I'm from an Irish family that suffered atrocities far worse than most slaves at the hand of the British, but I don't get pissy when I see someone with a british flag on their car. Why? Because it's not a big deal. It's a piece of fucking history for people, so grow up and stop demanding everyone conform so you don't feel bad.

God, these people need to have someone follow them around all day and just shine the world's biggest spotlight on their insecurities until they decide to live the life of a hermit.

You had a good one, right up until you made your "British Flag" rant. Firstly, under what authority are you speaking to all blacks/people who find the Confederate flag offensive? Secondly, has the British flag been adopted as the symbol for any type of hate group in the United States? The Confederate flag has.

And to answer your question about black comedians, the answer is like this: if someone is performing and you don't like the performance, you leave. Same thing that people are saying about games, don't play them if they offend you. Now, I will say that it's rich for people to complain about blacks making jokes about anyone considering for the last 150 years up to and including these days, blacks have been painted as sub-human, less intelligent, less compassionate, more likely to commit crime, etc etc. Not to mention facial structure has been mocked, the entire ethnic group has been told that they are closer to apes than men, horrible things have been said or done in this decade that should make it obvious that racism has not died down, and we are still a long way from equality.

See, if I were making this game (and for all I know, this is what Valve did), I'd look at the recent Census data and use that when populating the game. So if it's 61.3%, then that's the percentage of the zombies that would be black. And if anyone said it was racism, I could reply "No, that's realism!"

Left 4 Dead's zombies are all randomly generated based on statistics of who is likely to be in the area of the stage. There are black zombies in L4D1, they are just a little harder to spot than in the designs and setting for L4D2. If all of the zombies were white, the complaint would be "why aren't black people represented in the game?".

As for Resident Evil 5 and Call of Juarez, I have played neither so I can't comment.

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm

Mattsworkname: Its an interesting concept, but it's not gonna appeal to everyone thats for sure,08/01/2015 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: That sounds horrifically boring. Doesn't sound like an interesting use of its time dilation premise either. 08/01/2015 - 5:36pm